Speaker polarity?

[demuire]

How can you check which wire is positive and which is negative? I have a headunit, and I have no idea which wire is + and which is -... And I've heard you can damage the speakers if you wire them wrong? Even though both ways seems to work...

[Kinks]

you won't damage a speaker by reversing its polarity. however if you reverse the polarity of one speaker and not the rest then music will sound funny (at least, to someone who knows what a ****ed phase response sounds like) and there will be significantly less bass.

The best way to check a speaker's polarity is with an AA battery - connect the positive terminal to the speaker positive (or what you think is the speaker positive) and the negative to negative (duh). If the cone moves OUTWARDS in relation to the spider, then your guess is correct and the wire going to the AA battery's positive is the speaker positive. If the cone moves in towards the spider then you've got your wires mixed.

Checking which wire coming out of the head unit is positive is another matter, they are usually colour coded (ie on mine, the rear channels are Violet/Violet Black and Green/Green Black - that is the negative wire has a black stripe along it and the positive wire does not). Not clear whether you're trying to find out your head unit wiring polarity or the speaker's polarity but i'll try and help with both ;)

[demuire]

The voltage from the battery won't blow the speaker up right?

And yes I was looking for the polarity of the headunit :p Will check again to see if there are any stripes :)

Thanks :)

[teK]

Don't use anything bigger than about a 1.5V when testing speakers using that method, and don't hold it for more than a couple of seconds.

Common (but not official) convention for head unit wiring is for the striped wire out of the pair to be the -ive one.

[snavy]

just hook them up and see if they sound normal, if not reverse the polarities. It wont damge the speakers, the cones would just be burping in the opposite direction.

[Kinks]

no, a 1.5V battery will not damage woofers. Limit the time it's connected to a second or two just to be 300% safe, you just want to see the cone move anyway :)

[daz]

For an even more accurate (well, interesting anway) test, find a spare 240v outlet around home somewhere and you'll be ablt to see the cone take it both ways! ;)



SSSSSmokin'! ;)

[GTS_215KW]

demuire if u are talking about the pioneer tape deck (from your other thread) and it was made before 1999 then the colour codes for the wires are as follows.

--------
Before 1999 - High Power Car Stereos DEH & KEH Models only.

GREEN is the left front ( + ).
GREEN/BLACK is the negative ( - ).

GREEN/RED is the left rear ( + ).
BLACK/GREEN is the negative ( - ).

GRAY is the right front ( + ).
GRAY/BLACK is right front negative. ( - ).

GRAY/RED is right Rear Positive ( + ).
BLACK/GRAY is the right rear negative ( - ).

RED is the Acc lead.
ORANGE is for memory.
BLACK is ground. ( - ).
BLUE is for power Ant.
YELLOW is to lighting switch terminal.
-------

[bob shovel]

just do what snavy said hook em up and see what happens. i hooked my 6x9 up the wrong way didnt realise for about a month, when i changed it over they had a lot more bass, sound good.
to check go from left to right speaker and if it sounds like the one speaker by its self has more bass than the two together it means you have it the wrong way.

[demuire]

GTS_215KW: SWEET! Thanks :) My headunit is the KEH-3450 :)

[GTS_215KW]

no probs dood.

PS. the first colour given is the main/(majority) colour and the second colour is the trace (thin line)

:)